6 ms·

Highly focused development crunch time is "refreshing" from time to time. And since the involved engineers probably got pretty good salaries, it's hard to feel

Highly focused development crunch time is "refreshing" from time to time. And since the involved engineers probably got pretty good salaries, it's hard to feel sorry for anyone. But as I always say: Don't let a management problem become an engineering problem. The deadline was artificial and put stress on everyone. Uber is not an agency which has to deliver a product to some client. They have the freedom to release apps "when they're done" but choose not to do so.

sg47 5y ago
While it's not an agency, Uber has to allocate resources for a finite amount of time for a particular task. If there are other projects predicated on this app rewrite, it's absolutely essential that the rewrite is completed by a certain date.
- awillen 5y ago
  The only things predicated on the app release are marketing, etc. that they've decided to predicate on it. They also chose to take the launch on in the first place. Sometimes there are external deadlines (events whose schedule you don't control, things for partners, etc.), but this just clearly isn't one of them. They could've released the update after Christmas - that was 100% under their control.
yashap 5y ago
Indeed. Sounds like TK was a major issue here, but so were the whole tree of managers under him that agreed to ridiculous timelines that would destroy their teams instead of just pushing back on the deadline. Then again ... wouldn’t surprise me if TK very intentionally built such a management team. Regardless, to be safe, I’ll definitely never work at Uber, or any other company TK has touched. This sounds like an absolute nightmare, and is so different from my experiences in ~a decade at other tech companies that it’s crazy.
- foobarian 5y ago
  The crazy thing is... his bold, risk-takey leadership worked. So who's to blame these executives for continuing to pull these kinds of stunts? Sure a bunch of people burn out and leave but does that actually move the needle on any metrics besides turnover that these people look at? Assuming that departures get filled I don't know that turnover has that much of an impact on other metrics.
  - greazy 5y ago
    I think you are focusing on the business aspect and ignoring the humanity or lack of it in this situation. I wonder what the health toll was on the all the hundred of people who worked on this? The reduction in life expectancy, health issues that arise due to 16 hour days... It's not necessary.
    - edoceo 5y ago
      I think their point was that TK&Co do ignore the humanity for the "success" (ie: their money)
  - yashap 5y ago
    Losing fully onboarded people certainly hurts velocity on projects after this one. And being known as a bad place to work is very damaging for recruiting efforts - I’d think a strong majority of devs would agree with either/both of “I’d never work for Uber” or “I’d never work for a Travis Kalanick owned company.” For a B2C tech company, where the product is absolutely crucial to the business’ success, having trouble hiring good people is a major downside. Personally, about a year ago, a recruiter reached out to me about an interesting sounding role at “CloudKitchens”, that I was legitimately considering, but once I learned it was a Kalanick startup, I turned it down. The product/idea sounded interesting, but I’ve heard too many horror stories to work for the guy. I’m sure I’m far, FAR from the only one.
    - rahoulb 5y ago
      Did Uber struggle as a result of this? I know they struggled as a result of Travis in general, but do they have trouble hiring? Has their development pace really slowed down (Kotlin aside)? Is their product suffering as a result?
- JI00912 5y ago
  TK?
  - mavelikara 5y ago
    Travis Kalanick.
bcrosby95 5y ago
He says lots of people burned out and quit afterwards. Doesn't sound very refreshing. Sounds like the exact opposite: they spent everything they could and the adrenaline of the situation kept them going, and when that stopped they collapsed.
- kungito 5y ago
  Well they resigned from the company, they didn't die. They took the money and went elsewhere or on a break

sg47 5y ago

While it's not an agency, Uber has to allocate resources for a finite amount of time for a particular task. If there are other projects predicated on this app rewrite, it's absolutely essential that the rewrite is completed by a certain date.

awillen 5y ago
The only things predicated on the app release are marketing, etc. that they've decided to predicate on it. They also chose to take the launch on in the first place. Sometimes there are external deadlines (events whose schedule you don't control, things for partners, etc.), but this just clearly isn't one of them. They could've released the update after Christmas - that was 100% under their control.

yashap 5y ago

Indeed. Sounds like TK was a major issue here, but so were the whole tree of managers under him that agreed to ridiculous timelines that would destroy their teams instead of just pushing back on the deadline. Then again ... wouldn’t surprise me if TK very intentionally built such a management team. Regardless, to be safe, I’ll definitely never work at Uber, or any other company TK has touched. This sounds like an absolute nightmare, and is so different from my experiences in ~a decade at other tech companies that it’s crazy.

foobarian 5y ago
The crazy thing is... his bold, risk-takey leadership worked. So who's to blame these executives for continuing to pull these kinds of stunts? Sure a bunch of people burn out and leave but does that actually move the needle on any metrics besides turnover that these people look at? Assuming that departures get filled I don't know that turnover has that much of an impact on other metrics.
- greazy 5y ago
  I think you are focusing on the business aspect and ignoring the humanity or lack of it in this situation. I wonder what the health toll was on the all the hundred of people who worked on this? The reduction in life expectancy, health issues that arise due to 16 hour days... It's not necessary.
  - edoceo 5y ago
    I think their point was that TK&Co do ignore the humanity for the "success" (ie: their money)
- yashap 5y ago
  Losing fully onboarded people certainly hurts velocity on projects after this one. And being known as a bad place to work is very damaging for recruiting efforts - I’d think a strong majority of devs would agree with either/both of “I’d never work for Uber” or “I’d never work for a Travis Kalanick owned company.” For a B2C tech company, where the product is absolutely crucial to the business’ success, having trouble hiring good people is a major downside. Personally, about a year ago, a recruiter reached out to me about an interesting sounding role at “CloudKitchens”, that I was legitimately considering, but once I learned it was a Kalanick startup, I turned it down. The product/idea sounded interesting, but I’ve heard too many horror stories to work for the guy. I’m sure I’m far, FAR from the only one.
  - rahoulb 5y ago
    Did Uber struggle as a result of this? I know they struggled as a result of Travis in general, but do they have trouble hiring? Has their development pace really slowed down (Kotlin aside)? Is their product suffering as a result?
JI00912 5y ago
TK?
- mavelikara 5y ago
  Travis Kalanick.

bcrosby95 5y ago

He says lots of people burned out and quit afterwards. Doesn't sound very refreshing. Sounds like the exact opposite: they spent everything they could and the adrenaline of the situation kept them going, and when that stopped they collapsed.

kungito 5y ago
Well they resigned from the company, they didn't die. They took the money and went elsewhere or on a break